Religious Bias Among Religiously Conscious Black Christians in the United States

Research with White participants has demonstrated religious intergroup bias; however, religious identity may be different for Black Americans. Only religiously conscious Black Christians demonstrated a preference for Christian targets over Muslim and Atheist targets. Future research should consider what factors result in a person becoming conscious of other's religion.     

Objectivity and a comparison of methodological scenario approaches for climate change research

Climate change assessments rely upon scenarios of socioeconomic developments to conceptualize alternative outcomes for global greenhouse gas emissions. These are used in conjunction with climate models to make projections of future climate. Specifically, the estimations of greenhouse gas emissions based on socioeconomic scenarios constrain climate models in their outcomes of temperatures, precipitation, etc. Traditionally, the fundamental logic of the socioeconomic scenarios—that is, the logic that makes them plausible—is developed and prioritized using methods that are very subjective. This introduces a fundamental challenge for climate change assessment: The veracity of projections of future climate currently rests on subjective ground. We elaborate on these subjective aspects of scenarios in climate change research. We then consider an alternative method for developing scenarios, a systems dynamics approach called ‘Cross-Impact Balance’ (CIB) analysis. We discuss notions of ‘objective’ and ‘objectivity’ as criteria for distinguishing appropriate scenario methods for climate change research. We distinguish seven distinct meanings of ‘objective,’ and demonstrate that CIB analysis is more objective than traditional subjective approaches. However, we also consider criticisms concerning which of the seven meanings of ‘objective’ are appropriate for scenario work. Finally, we arrive at conclusions regarding which meanings of ‘objective’ and ‘objectivity’ are relevant for climate change research. Because scientific assessments uncover knowledge relevant to the responses of a real, independently existing climate system, this requires scenario methodologies employed in such studies to also uphold the seven meanings of ‘objective’ and ‘objectivity.’     

Infant behaviors influence mothers’ provision of responsive and directive behaviors

Mother–infant interactions are important to infant development because they are predictive of infants’ social, cognitive, and language development (0070 and 0150). Because maternal responsive and directive behaviors are associated with differential infant outcomes, it is important to investigate influences on mothers’ provision of responsive and directive behaviors. Yet, the dyadic interaction literature is predominantly unidirectional from maternal behavior to infant outcomes. Therefore, the current study examined infant initiating behaviors and consequent maternal responses in a sample of 26 13-month-old infants and their mothers, videotaped during 5 min of free-play. Findings revealed that infants produced a variety of initiatives, and that these different infant initiatives prompted differential patterns of maternal responsive versus directive behaviors. Further, results of analyses of divergent types of maternal directive behaviors – Responsive Directives, ReDirectives, and Intrusive Directives – also may help clarify major discrepancies in the current literature regarding the positive and negative effects of maternal directiveness.     

The social phobia and anxiety inventory: Construct validity

The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) is a new instrument composed of social phobia and agoraphobia subscales. The latter scale is used to detect social anxiety that may result from agoraphobia. The SPAI's construct validity was assessed through several procedures. First, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to validate the existence of the two subscales. Second, exploratory factor analyses examined the underlying structure of the social phobia subscale. Third, a Q factor procedure determined if different anxiety diagnostic groups could be differentiated by their SPAI response pattern. The results confirmed the utility of the two SPAI subscales and identified a number of dimensions contained within the social phobia subscale which differed depending upon the specific subject sample. In addition, the complaints of social phobies appeared more homogeneous than those of an agoraphobic comparison group. The results are discussed in terms of construct validity and the sensitivity of the SPAI to various dimensions of social phobia fears.This study was supported in part by NIMH Grants 41852, 30915, 18269, and 16884.     

The Interactive Effects of Procedural Justice and Equity Sensitivity in Predicting Responses to Psychological Contract Breach: An Interactionist Perspective

Purpose  The purpose of the study was to examine the combined interactive effects of a situational variable (procedural justice) and a dispositional (equity sensitivity) variable on the relationship between breach and employee outcomes. Design/methodology/approach   Data were obtained from 403 full-time employees representing a wide variety of business sectors in the Philippines. Supervisors were requested to provide an assessment of their subordinate’s civic virtue behavior. Findings  Results showed that equity sensitivity and breach interacted in predicting affective commitment. The negative relationship between breach and affective commitment was stronger for employees with an input-focused approach to organizational relationships (referred to as benevolents) than for those with an outcome-focused approach (referred to as entitleds). Results also indicated a stronger negative relationship between contract breach and civic virtue behavior under conditions of high procedural justice. Finally, a three-way interaction was found between contract breach, procedural justice and equity sensitivity in predicting affective commitment. Implications  Our findings provide a new insight suggesting that worse outcomes are to be anticipated especially if employees have an expectation that procedural justice can prevent any form of contract breach. In addition, although previous research has portrayed benevolents as more accepting of situations of u under-reward, this study has demonstrated that they too have their limits or threshold for under-reward situations. Originality/value  This research suggests that the type and intensity of one’s reactions to psychological contract breach is influenced by interactive forces of the individual’s disposition and the organizational procedures. A portion of this paper was presented at the 64th annual meeting of the academy of management meeting, New Orleans, USA, August, 2004.